The Distant Pain
by DJ Lee
Summary: Manga Spoilers for Ch. 437 He didn’t want to see anymore of his friends or precious people die. He just couldn’t bear it.


**Disclaimer:** Naruto copyright Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement is intended. This story was created for entertainment purposes only and if requested to be removed, it will be done immediately and without complaint.

**Note:** Inspired by the latest chapter of Naruto, Chapter 437. There are **SPOILERS**, so be warned if you decide to continue reading. Also, since the fight is clearly not over, some of the details will be AU for the sake of the story.

**The Distant Pain  
**

It had been close to a year since she'd last seen him and she'd growing weary of his constant avoidance of her. She sighed tiredly as she removed her medical examination gloves and disposed of them in the nearest bin. Her shift was over and she wanted some rest more than ever. But she'd missed the usual greeting of her teammate as he stopped by to walk her home from work. She hadn't had one of those in a long time.

After the first few months weighing her down with all the patients and injured pouring into the hospital, work had started evening out and she was back to her usual schedule. Even then, she'd never once caught a glimpse of him and that annoyed her more than anything. She'd tried contacting Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-shishou, but even they hadn't heard a peep from Naruto. Tsunade-shishou only talked to him when he reported for missions but other than that, he rarely spoke a word.

Sakura grumpily grabbed her belongings and left the building, taking the time to wave goodbye to the secretaries in the front desk before she started her journey home. She let out a small sigh and looked upwards at the dark sky. The stars shone brightly that night next to an equally bright and round moon that cast a wave of nostalgia to course over her. She remembered a time where she'd been so exhausted after a day's work that when Naruto arrived for her customary walk home, he ended up giving her a piggy-back ride across the village. They had talked about anything and everything. She had learned that day why he loved ramen so much. She'd never bothered asking before and was quite surprised to learn that when he was living at the orphanage they hardly gave him a full meal compared to the other kids. So he snuck cup ramen from the staff's pantry to eat at night. She smiled sadly at the memory and averted her gaze to the road.

* * *

The first time she saw him within the span of a year, she had barely seen him at the store grabbing a box of cup ramen. A few people who were passing by blocked her view and before she could even approach him, he was gone.

The next time, she was preparing for her mission and was approaching the gates of Konoha when she spotted him returning from one of his. He had seen her and before she could even say anything, he had disappeared in a puff of smoke. That annoyed her more than anything.

The most recent time she saw him, he was at the newly rebuilt Ichiraku Ramen stand. She wanted to approach him, but when he caught sight of her, he poofed out of sight again.

* * *

Ino could tell her friend was frustrated and as a show of friendship, the blond reached up and flicked the pink-haired kunoichi across the forehead. Sakura flinched and glared at her best friend.

"What was that for?" growled the medic-nin as he rubbed her forehead.

"You've been really spacey lately," said Ino as she swirled her drink casually.

Sakura averted her gaze elsewhere.

"It's because of Naruto, isn't it?" the blond asked, causing Sakura to jump, startled at the correct guess. "Don't worry, he'll come around eventually."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Sure, as if one year isn't long enough."

Ino could only give her friend a sympathetic smile. "Then you'll have to confront him yourself."

* * *

Naruto knew that it wasn't fair what he was doing, but he had no other choice. Konoha was still rebuilding itself after its devastating attack a little more than a year ago. Ninjas and civilians alike worked constantly around the clock to salvage what they could and to build new structures. Even the Hokage Monument went through drastic rebuilding. Hardly any Konoha ninjas left the village unless it was for somewhere nearby or for very short missions. Usually he'd try to weasel in as many missions as he could just to escape the village, not because he hated them, but because of the memories it held.

People were a little wary of him and he couldn't blame them. He had completely lost it when he had released six-tails from his rage. Never again did he want to lose someone close to him again. First Jiraiya, then Hinata. Jiraiya was somewhat of an annoying master, but he was like a grandfather to him. Although he didn't know Hinata that well, she was fellow comrade, a friend, and someone who had expressed her love to him. Even though he didn't feel the same for her, he at least wanted to put her down lightly and still be her friend, but what shocked him more than anything was when she was brutally stabbed to death before his very eyes. He all but lost it. He'd never forget the look on her face as she defended him and when she was down for the count with a growing pool of blood under her lifeless body. Those memories would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Kakashi-sensei was on the verge of death and Naruto was almost certain he was dead until he was admitted to the hospital with a faint pulse, just hanging onto life by a thread, and severely depleted of chakra. Then Tsunade-baachan was right behind Kakashi with how much chakra she used to defend the village. He was sure that if she had used anymore, she wouldn't have made it. He was just glad that he had arrived in time to spare her and take her place in the fight against Pain. He'd never been happier to see both his sensei and grandmother figure alive.

He sat at a tree just outside of Konoha and just stared at the now peaceful, yet very vulnerable Konoha. Tsunade-baachan had approached him one day when Konoha was just beginning to rebuild itself and revealed to him about his heritage and his link to the Fourth Hokage. He was beyond shocked and angered. He questioned her as to why she had kept it a secret. She merely gave him a very sad smile and pulled him into a hug, something he rarely ever gotten. She had explained to him that it was originally meant to be kept a secret forever, but she thought that he deserved to know and that she wanted to tell him before her time came. As thankful as he was for what she had done for him, he couldn't bring himself to grow anymore attached to her for the fear of what it might bring. He didn't want her to leave him like Jiraiya had.

Naruto sighed and grabbed his bag. He'd hate to leave the village, but he was sure that with Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-baachan there, they'd be just fine and he always took missions in areas nearby so he could race back in a moment's notice if anything went wrong. As he jumped down from the tree to approach the gates of Konoha, he couldn't help but let his thoughts drift to Sakura-chan. Usually when he came back from a mission, she'd be there waiting for him and actually go grab a bowl of ramen with him.

As he stared up at the dark sky and the bright stars, the nostalgia of the times he used to walk Sakura-chan home from work crept up at him. Back then, when he was in the village he'd usually wait for her to get off work and then walk her home, but ever since the attack, he couldn't bring himself to go anywhere near her. He needed to distance himself from her and anyone close to him. That way the pain would hurt less and they wouldn't leave him like Jiraiya had. He didn't even dare come in contact with any of his friends from the Rookie 9 or Team Gai for fear of a repeat of Hinata's death. He didn't want to see anymore of his friends or precious people die. He just couldn't bear it.

He sighed heavily to himself and made his way up to his new apartment. Sensing another person's presence, he instinctively reached into his weapon's pouch and in a flash, held a kunai up to the stranger's throat. The stranger's lips turned up slightly and he got a good look at who was leaning against his door. Removing his hand away from Sakura' throat, he took a step back from her and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to visit my teammate," she stated casually.

He narrowed his eyes at her and reached into his pocket to retrieve his keys. It was cold outside and he wanted to go inside after a long mission. As he turned the knob and walked inside, he was surprised to see that Sakura had not followed him in. "Aren't you going to come in?"

"Aren't you going to invite me?" she countered.

Naruto groaned and said through gritted teeth, "Please come in."

She walked in, removed her sandals and glanced around at his new place. It was clean and terribly boring. There was no personality anywhere in the place except for the corner full of discarded clothes and overflowing waste bin of ramen cups. It was much different from his old apartment that looked as if a tornado hit it with all the scrolls, junk, ramen cups, and clothes all over the place.

"It's clean," was the first thing out of her mouth.

"I'm hardly home," he replied as he went to his cupboard to grab some tea and placed a kettle of water on the stove. He spared a glance at her before averting his gaze to a random corner of the room. "What brings you around? How did you even find me?"

Sakura let out a small laugh, but he could detect the sadness resonating in her voice. "I've told you. I came to visit my teammate and my best friend. I've missed him."

He had the shame to look away.

"I've had enough of him trying to avoid me, so I decided to confront him and see how he's doing. I got his new address and mission schedule from Tsunade-shishou. The perks of being the Hokage's apprentice," she explained as if she were talking about someone else. It only made his guilt and shame greater.

He could feel his resolve to distance himself slipping as she talked. The longer she stayed the more he'll want to reach out to her and pull her into a hug and he couldn't have that; not with his goal. He couldn't afford to grow attached to anyone anymore. They'll all leave him in the end and he wasn't ready for that.

"Now that you've come and have seen me—I'm doing great by the way—you can leave," he tried to get out as coldly as he could.

She didn't move an inch and he laughed to himself. He should've known how stubborn she could be. After all, she was Tsunade-baachan's pupil. "You can't get rid of me that easily, Uzumaki Naruto."

She narrowed her eyes and said angrily, "First you leave the Village to train, which I can understand, but then you return to defend our Village and then all this chaos with Akatsuki occurs. And when all that's over, you pretend as if we don't exist and you distance yourself from us? That's low, Naruto, even for you."

What she said was true, but she didn't understand his reasoning, so he chose to ignore her and focused his attention on the clock ticking away on the wall.

"I take that your silence means that you agree," she said as she approached him. "You think distancing yourself from everyone you care about will take away the pain if one of us were to disappear right?" His further silence must've proved her theory right because the next thing he knew, she had pulled him into a tight embrace. "Don't you ever think that, Naruto!" she scolded.

So shocked by her sudden embrace, Naruto didn't know what to say, think or do. He was trying to avoid this from happening, but here she was completely breaking any resolve he had left.

"No matter what you do, Naruto… you're still someone important to us. You're hurting not only yourself but everyone that cares about you by distancing yourself from us."

He knew the consequences of his actions and replied softly, "I know… but the pain is just too great…"

"Then let us help you get over the pain," suggested Sakura.

"I don't know if it'll work."

"Then let us try."

He remained silent for a long time, with his arms hanging by his side as Sakura hugged him. Finally, he spoke. "Sakura-chan?"

She didn't know why, but tears sprung to her eyes when she heard him address her as such. It had been too long since she'd last spoken to him and heard that annoying yet affectionate "Sakura-chan" from him. "Yeah?"

"Promise you'll never leave me," he asked, his voice sounding more broken than it had mere moments before.

Her heart broke at his vulnerability and she pulled him to her tighter. "I can't promise that I'll never leave you. We're ninja and we can die at any time… but I can promise you that I'll stay with you for as long as I'm able to, until it is time for one of us to go."

Finally, his arms reached out and returned the hug. Even though it didn't mean forever, to Uzumaki Naruto, it meant an eternity.

He then saw a major flaw in his reasoning and he was just glad that it wasn't too late to fix things. As he hugged her, he realized that he could never live a life without Sakura-chan and those dear to him. It was pure torture that past year. He couldn't imagine the rest of his life that way.

So for now, he'd be content with having her in his life until the day that one of them were to go.

* * *

**A/N: With all the chaos that is going on through the Naruto community, I've decided to write a story based on my take of Hinata's fate and how that affects how Naruto perceives his bonds with his friends and teammates afterwards. It wasn't written as well as I had hoped, but I needed to get it out of my system. **


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